Employer’s Legal Rights and Obligations
Joe works at a call center. Joe is expected to provide excellent customer service, and he must have strong communications skills. Call center representatives need to be flexible, organized, and they must show attention to detail. Last year, Joe was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and ADHD.
Joe has requested the following accommodations: (1) Because Joe’s new medications can disrupt sleep, he has requested to come into work an hour late each day for two weeks while he adjusts to his new medications. (2) Joe has asked if he can report to a different supervisor because his supervisor increases his anxiety. (3) Because Joe is having difficulty focusing, he has requested that the company provide him with a template to follow for each call. He requests that the template include a checklist so that he will not forget an important detail on the call. (4) Joe has asked the company to provide a smart phone. He has requested the smart phone to set reminders for work tasks. (5) Joe has asked for a noise machine so that he will not be distracted by his coworkers on other calls.
Analyze the requested accommodations. Consider which accommodations you can grant and which you must deny. If you cannot grant an accommodation, explain why. Search the Job Accommodation Network (https://askjan.org/soar.cfm) (Links to an external site.) for any accommodations that you could propose to Joe that would be more reasonable for your employer. When posting, engage with others and demonstrate depth of analysis and creativity. Your initial post is due by midnight on Sunday, to allow your classmates to respond. Remember that actively engaging with your peers in a manner that reflects graduate level work is required to receive full credit.
The Americans with Disabilities Act persuasively, provides that employers must give “reasonable accommodation” for employees with disabilities- this includes Joe’s ADHD condition. However, the act precisely advocates that the employees with ADHD must do more than reveal their condition in order to be protected by the act. In this case scenario Joe needs to show the ADHD condition affects his performance and substantially how the said condition affects his daily life at work and his relationship with the co-workers. Notably, Joe’s accommodations must be analyzed to fit the provisions of the Rehabilitation Act (section 504) of equality (“Is ADHD a disability? Your legal rights at work,” 2019). Further, other employees should not suffer prejudice by the employer providing the said accommodations to Joe.
Prudently, the company has to establish if Joe undertakes his designated work reasonably or as per the required standards even with his condition- before issuing the pleaded special accommodation. The 1st accommodation is based on medical grounds and the same is proved as per the provisions of section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act. A medical requirement in this instance has been proved by an expert and it is legally binding to allow such an accommodation. Reasonably because he is trying to adapt to the new medication and it has not been indicated that his condition affects his performance at work or affects his colleagues.
The accommodation/grounds of the company providing him with a routine because he forgets, a smart phone for alarms and provision of a noise machine, do not conform with elements of reasonability. The accommodation grounds distinctly affect the performance of other workers hence other employees shall be prejudiced in the circumstance. Summarily, to design an effective plan for Joe’s condition equity and provisions of section 504 of the rehabilitation Act have to be put in place as expressed above.
Reference
Is ADHD a disability? Your legal rights at work. (2019, November 25). ADDitude. https://www.additudemag.com/workplace-legal-protection/
